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https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mother-8-adopted-children-special-needs-arrested-after-9-year-n959301
I'm all for special needs adoption, and I'm not against people adopting multiple times, but there's a piont where a lot of scrutiny needs to be given to ensure parents have adequete resources to care for another child and aren't just child collecting or giving in to some rescuer fantasy.

Erica Parsons' adoptive parents have not heard from here since December 2011, yet never reported her missing. I watched this on Dr. Phil yesterday and am awaiting the conclusion.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -Phil.html
One thing mentioned in the show and not in the article: the child was never reported missing partially because the Parsons home school. In NC there are ZERO homeschooling regulations, hence authorities were never alerted that she was no longer attending school.

48 Hours has an interesting new episode about an Australian cult run by a women who said she was Christ reincarnated. They were very child centered and she even stole other people's children. Very interesting commentary by a cult expert about how photographs show how children's personalities are being suppressed. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/inside-the-family-cult-australia-anne-hamilton-byrne/

https://people.com/crime/wisconsin-boy-allegedly-killed-during-punishment-not-knowing-bible-verses/
I'm still reading up on some other articles for some background on this so I don't have a lot of comments right now except for stating the horror I'm feeling. I'm not sure how far I'll get with reading into it this evening so I thought I'd post it now so maybe someone can share some links they come across too.
So incredibly sad.

Fundamentalist Mormons were my first group that got me interested. I have studied A LOT about FLDS/bountiful/Kingston etc. However I have never heard of the Knights of the Crystal Blade?!? These girls were ages 4-8 seriously?!!?!?! Be prepared mentally this is a huge rabbit hole,
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/self-styled-utah-prophet-gets-additional-15-year-prison-term/ar-AAzhXwd

Why do people do this? I don't see any biological children posted. These families should be banned from other adoptions and go through a standard investigation of the other children in the home.
https://m.facebook.com/secondchanceadop ... =notify_me

So I've run across this fellow named Mike Martin, who is a father of five. He and his wife have a youtube channel with videos that consist primarily of "pranks" on the kids. Some (myself included...) are calling these "pranks" abusive--they involve a lot of yelling, strong language, and in one instance, one of the children gets pushed into a bookcase and has a nosebleed as a result. I've linked to one of the videos, but be aware it's very triggering.

So, the Georgia pastor who tweeted about the victims in the Orlando night club shooting “been through so much with these Jacksonville homosexuals that I don’t see none of them as victims. I see them as getting what they deserve” apparently spoke from a position of extreme self-loathing. Ken Adkins, of Brunswick, GA turned himself into police after charges that he molested a boy in the church, in his car, and in the victim's home.
Anyone who is shocked by this turn of events, please meet at the dining room table for a special tutorial on homophobia.
http://deadstate.org/pastor-who-warned-gays-would-sexually-molest-kids-in-bathrooms-is-arrested-for-child-molestation/

https://www.apnews.com/2fcc70b19b6a484bb122bb9d4724e844/Jerry-Sandusky's-son-Jeffrey-charged-with-child-sexual-abuse?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=AP
While there is no excuse for this, and I hope he pays the consequences for his actions, I can't help but be sad for him, too. His dad likely began with him, and I doubt he ever got help.
My heart is with his victim(s) and families. May they receive the help they need and deserve so much.

I'm putting this one under Politics because I'm going to tie this to a tone-deaf move my Representative made a few minutes ago. Proving to me that she has no clue what is going on back home.
Greitens is the new Missouri Governor. I had to pull the news off the Jefferson City station because it has more details than CoMo does.
http://krcgtv.com/news/local/gov-greitins-holds-a-press-conference-regarding-child-abuse-at-a-dss-facility
Bolding of SOUTHWEST BAPTIST UNIVERSITY is mine.
So my Rep posts this lovely photo.
Guess what SBUni stands for? Yes, Southwestern Baptist University.
Their twitter is also followed by Republican Senator Roy Blunt. Shock shock shock.

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/gwinnett-county/testimony-begins-in-trial-of-couple-accused-of-locking-son-in-basement/487475026
http://www.ajc.com/news/local/son-kept-basement-for-months-testifies-wimbush-trial-begins/UvjX8WY8Gb5VKqq7cUbp7I/
In 2014 this couple locked their 12 year old son in a basement for 18 months, saying that he had done something that violated their old testament beliefs and had to be separated from the family. Apparently he stole a DVD player. The room had no lights and he was not permitted access to a bathroom.
They also refused to get medical care for their 7 year old, who has a very large tumor that the Drs say would have taken years to grow - and is now cancerous.
The defendants are representing themselves and have submitted some interesting documents, like this "plea offer" that demands hundreds of millions of dollars.
https://www.scribd.com/document/334230263/Wimbush-Joint-Plea-Offer-002#from_embed
They did not deny that they locked the child away or failed to seek medical attention for their other child (they have 8 others). They just seem to feel that it was their religious right to discipline him as they saw fit.
Hopefully a verdict is reached today.
http://www.ajc.com/news/local/verdict-wimbush-case-jury-continue-deliberations-friday/TCfJO7lOaIcwci9vGDQD0M/

The father was until just recently the CEO of a Christian adult care home. He and his wife were fundraising to go to Peru as missionaries with their Peruvian adopted children, who they are now accused of starving and torturing. They pulled them out of school to home school in 2014 and evidently have been keeping them isolated since then.
http://www.thekansan.com/news/20160217/story-of-abuse-unfolds/1

I've always thought that Satanic panic was a uniquely American phenomenon, but today I heard a true crime podcast on Ella Draper and learned that it exists in the UK as well:
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Ella_Draper
(not the best source, obviously, but the only one that explains everything in a brief manner)
This story is bonkers, even by Satanic Panic standards: Draper and "Papa Hemp" giving marijuana to the children while withholding food, lurid accusations of cannibalism and pedophilia on Youtube, Internet lynch mobs. Do any UK FJers have any insights on this case?

I recently found out about the thankfully defunct Tony Alamo Ministries, and found this account of a woman who was raised in this craziness:
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/09/inside_the_arkansas_compound_t.html
Franckiewicz's story has a happy ending, since she escaped and Alamo was put in prison. I seriously doubt Gothard, for example, will ever have to pay for his crimes, although now I'm wondering if the Bateses and Duggars will be praying to resurrect him when he eventually dies.

An absolute scumbag, rightly getting tried back in the UK for his crimes
This is the major reason why I have such a problem with "independent" missionary (or teacher/NGO) jobs abroad, especially in developing countries. Without transparency, oversight, and regulation (hell, even with all those things), it's all too easy to have something like this go on for years. And this is far from the only case. But with any luck, this monster will be locked away for a nice, long time (hopefully forever) and he will perpetually have horrible diarrhea or something equally unpleasant as karmic punishment in addition to imprisonment.

This just came across my newsfeed. Horrible, horrible case. Trigger alert for child abuse.
http://foxsanantonio.com/news/local/toddlers-found-chained-tied-up-outside-bexar-county-home
I think this is breaking news, so there are not many details. All together, 8 children from 2-13 were found on the premises, with the two toddlers chained up like dogs outside. At midnight. There's a special place in Hell for whoever would treat children like this.
The spokesman for the sheriff's department couldn't even speak about it without crying.
ETA: I'm so glad that these children are now being cared for and helped.

I read comments are really slamming the photographer. How was the photographer to know what happened? It's also interesting the mom was an active soldier.
http://jezebel.com/woman-who-commissioned-ghost-photos-with-dead-daughte-1768422467

Just stumbled upon this article:
http://ktla.com/2016/03/07/oklahoma-missionary-accused-of-raping-children-at-african-orphanage-sentenced-to-40-years-in-prison/
Matthew Durham, a 21 year old Oklahoma native, went on a missionary trip to Kenya to work at an orphanage and has been found guilty of raping three young girls up to eight times and molesting a 12 year old boy twice in his first 33 days there. He's been sentenced to 40 years in prison.
In this case, it was 'lucky' (as much as anything can be in this situation) that there were other workers there who were pretty observant with his behaviour and changes in the children's behaviour by the sounds of it. I really wonder how often this sort of things happen with these foreign missionaries who go to Africa and work with children with very little oversight.

In sad, yet expected, news from Idaho, Steven Sitler is continuing his path; this time it involves his own son.
http://www.correctionsone.com/correctio ... ith-child/
I read that this morning and needed to vomit.

Saw this today in Newsweek....trigger warning for those who may be survivors. Article talks about child sexual abuse and child physical abuse within the Hasidic community....how abusers are shuffled from school to school, people won't speak out because of being ostracized....and then includes this:
"Despite all the physical, sexual and emotional abuse they have witnessed or endured, most of the former Hasidic yeshiva students Newsweek spoke to insist that what people outside their community really need to be alarmed about is the dismal education offered by these schools. They are angry that when they reached 18 and finally moved out of their parents’ home, they realized for the first time that they hadn’t been given the tools needed to navigate the real world. (The New York City Department of Education is investigating at least three dozen yeshivas to determine if they are providing adequate secular education.)"
It's amazing how similar all fundy religious organizations are....be they Christian, Jewish, or Muslim.